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Tax-free fuel SmartSalary Car Leasing customers get: • Tax-free fuel • Tax-free car maintenance • Tax-free registration & insurance Start your savings now. Call us now on 1300 889 644 Visit www.smartsalary.com.au 11 Feature AIR FORCE June 11, 2009 By SQNLDR Peter Hogarth WHO would have thought a group of Air Force personnel would be getting paid to sail the seas? For 30 Air Force personnel, and a number of Army diggers, that's exactly what they did for three months earlier this year as part of Operation Resolute -- Defence's contribution to maritime security operations under Border Protection Command. Known as Transit Security Element (TSE) 52, the group was deployed aboard patrol boats force-assigned by Joint Operations Command for border protec- tion duties. Although their efforts were focused on investigative boardings of foreign fish- ing vessels and suspected illegal entry vessels, TSE52 personnel also conducted guard duties, steaming parties (crewing escorted vessels) and helmsman watches. Commander TSE52 SQNLDR Peter Hogarth said that a number of foreign fishermen had been brought to Australia in the custody of TSE52 and a number of potential illegal immigrants had been accompanied by TSE members to the processing centre at Christmas Island. TSE52 included both permanent and reserve Air Force members from across Australia, from musterings as diverse as clerks, cooks, aircraft surface finishers, airfield defence guards and service police. LAC Jed Hissey is a reservist and a student at the University of Wollongong who took a semester off to join TSE52. He said he found it very rewarding. Other members of TSE52 spoke high- ly of the Navy crews, saying they were very friendly and involved them in all activities. While the Navy lingo was a little hard to learn at first, they were soon all speaking like sailors. SO1 Ops at HQNORCOM CMDR Darren Grogan said TSE52 had put in a huge effort over the three months they had been on rotation. "The operational tempo has been high, but the combined response really high- lights what can be accomplished in a joint environment," he said. "The Air Force and Army personnel who form the TSEs make a significant contribution to our mission success." TSE52 was replaced by an all-Army TSE at the beginning of May. However, there are likely to be further opportunities for Air Force members to volunteer for future deployments in support of multi- agency border-protection duties. for sea rescue required constant attention and members of the crew had pitched in to help however they could. "Leading Seamen Tobler and Keogh, who were also on the foreign vessel at the time of the explosion, took charge of the less acute cases while I looked after the more serious ones," she said. "One sailor held the hand of an injured man for more than five hours, just to give him the comfort and strength he needed to get through." CPL Jager said members of the crew worked above and beyond the levels people should be expected to, because they all wanted the men to survive. "Working on the back deck of a speeding boat was like working on a roller coaster and the people were struggling, but they didn't die because we wouldn't let them," she said. "Whatever it was we did for all those hours that day worked, because no-one died on our watch." The morning had dragged well into the afternoon when CPL Jager took the last bag of IV fluid up to Childers' bridge to show the commanding officer, LCDR Brett Westcott, how critical things were becoming. "He pointed to the horizon where I saw the oil plat- form Front Puffin and it was right about then I heard the Orion overhead bringing more supplies," she said. Once Childers and Albany reached the Front Puffin, they found the workers had used their own bedding and supplies to establish a treatment area for the injured. FLTLT Darby said the rig workers just asked what was needed and did everything required without ques- tion or complaint. "It was amazing. Everything I asked for would come, and whoever was there would do it," she said. CPL Jager said that when the first helicopter arrived to evacuate the high-priority patients, she knew they were getting close to the end. However, it was many more hours before the high- priority casualties were all evacuated, and Childers could begin the transit to Darwin. DECK HANDS: CPL Sharon Jager (foreground) and FLTLT Jo Darby in HMAS Childers. LONG DAY: FLTLT Jo Darby assists an injured man on the oil platform Front Puffin. Airmen all at sea to protect borders